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Search Engines: Tools, Hacks and Tips by Ann Smarty

Search engine policies and protocols are getting harder and harder to keep track of these days. In spite of denying the existence of disavows and penalties, our own service was subject to just such a mercenary tactic fairly recently. MyBlogGuest saw first hand what happens when Google gets nasty.

Having come through the other side of the issue - and accepting that there is no recovering from the fallout that resulted in the hit - there is some unique insight to provide on this particular issue. The might of Google is extreme, and it goes beyond just search. Their grip reaches into every corner of the internet, from social media to content. How do you keep yourself from facing the struggles and strife that we did?

The hard truth is that there is no 100% way of keeping yourself from facing penalties. Rules are changing, and so you always run the risk of falling behind on one. Or just being accused under a more arbitrary, vaguely defined policy that was created to carpet bomb a growing issue. It is becoming more and more obvious that Google is reacting strongly in hopes of keeping up with the growing sophistication of scammers exploiting the system. Their algorithm updates just aren’t doing the job.

Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean there is no hope. Search engines are a huge category, and there are many topics encompassed within its scope. In this section we will keep you up to date on those evolving protocols, give you advice on increasing traffic, discuss the often divisive issue of Google’s place in monitoring the web, talk about new features, look at how to integrate other services with search results, and a lot more.

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If I have learned anything since I started this blog is to find anything in Google almost momentarily. I can quickly find the source of a quote, the original image or the official documentation for anything. At college they used to say that you don’t need to (and you cannot) know answers to all questions: […]

I thought I’d share my *personal* experience with being hit by Google penalty. There’s a growing number of people like me, so I hope that will be helpful *Mind that we are a bit special case study as we are not going to recover (and that’s another story, don’t judge me). But that experience will […]

Here’s my big confession: I was so stubborn with stating that we are NOT hiding anything that I put our community under the risk. I want to publicly apologize for that. Really, I thought the sneakier you get, the more obvious it is that you are doing something wrong. We never hid our sites or […]

I’ll start by saying that I really appreciate that to happen right during my Pubcon session. I should have been enjoying my time in New Orleans instead of writing this article… Now, to the most important discovery of the day: People are just awesome! I have much more trust in our community and in absolutely […]

Google Authorship has been the most intriguing developments in the search industry for the past couple of years. With exciting predictions like one that Google will identify “subject authorities” or another one that author-verified results will be ranked higher, it’s obvious that search marketers have been watching it with much anticipation. So far, despite the […]

By Don Sturgill Guest Blogging – it’s like candy. You know you want some, but you’re not sure it’s good for you. Once considered the primary way for publishers to get fresh content and writers to get not only a backlink, but their names splattered all over the webosphere … guest blogging has come under […]

Past weekend was one of the rare occasions when I didn’t go anywhere with my family and decided to stay at home to get prepared for my presentation at soon-to-come PubCon New Orleans where I am speaking on optimizing your content marketing to Google’s authorship and potential Google AuthorRank update. Hence I had some quality […]